"In August this year, we randomly 'reviewed' the registration of ambulances in some hospitals in our jurisdiction. At present, the city's ambulance filing procedures are complete, and rectification supervision is in place. A few days ago, talking about the operation of ambulances in the jurisdiction after the formulation and issuance of procuratorial recommendations, Geng Fang, director of the Second Procuratorial Department of the Anyang City Procuratorate in Henan Province, told reporters. Ambulances are special vehicles that save patients, and their importance in saving lives is undeniable. However, during the handling of the case, the Anyang Municipal Procuratorate discovered that the ambulance protecting the patient's life had become a drug carrier engaged in criminal activities.
Starting from this case, in December 2022, in response to the issue of standardized management of ambulances in the jurisdiction, the Anyang Municipal Procuratorate formulated and issued social governance inspection recommendations to the municipal health department, urging it to investigate and rectify and plug the loopholes in ambulance supervision.
The procurator conducts a return visit to investigate the approval and registration of ambulances.
Driven by lust, ambulances become drug trucks
In January 2022, drug addict Wang learned while chatting with people that a person codenamed "Lao Jiang" (still under arrest) sold drugs at a relatively cheap price. Wang immediately added "Lao Jiang's" WeChat to contact the purchase of drugs.
Wang was in Linzhou, and "Lao Jiang" was in Puyang, nearly 200 kilometers apart, and it was during the epidemic prevention and control period, according to the regulations, motor vehicles could not drive across the city at will. How can I buy drugs smoothly? After a few thoughts, Wang hit the ambulance with his crooked idea.
Through introduction, Wang contacted Dai, who drove an ambulance in a private hospital. On January 18 of the same year, Wang falsely claimed to rent Dai's car to Puyang, paid him 1,500 yuan in fare, and Dai drove him to Puyang by ambulance. After getting out of the car, Wang went alone to find "Lao Jiang" to buy drugs. After successfully buying drugs, Wang was excited, and after that, he rented Dai's ambulance three times in the same way to go to Puyang City to buy drugs. In the early morning of May 7, 2022, when Wang returned from buying drugs for the third time by car, the police arrested him at the exit of Nanlin Expressway in Linzhou City.
After being prosecuted by the Linzhou Municipal Procuratorate, on December 26, 2022, the court sentenced Wang to one year in prison and fined him 10,000 yuan for illegal possession of drugs.
Dig deep into the regulatory issues behind the case
After the case was prosecuted, Geng Fang, who undertook the case, fell into deep thought: ambulances are medical service vehicles for medical institutions, which play an important role in responding to natural disasters and emergency emergencies, and can only be used for rescuing, transporting seriously injured and sick people, dealing with emergency epidemics and public health services, etc., and cannot be diverted for other purposes.
On November 20, 2022, the Anyang Municipal Procuratorate set up an investigation team to investigate the illegal operation of ambulances in the city, and successively went to the municipal health department, a municipal hospital, the highway traffic police detachment of the Municipal Public Security Bureau, and the Vehicle Management Office of the Municipal Public Security Bureau to collect evidence and materials involved in the case. After investigation, it was found that the ambulance involved in the case was purchased on behalf of a person and was affiliated with a private orthopedic hospital in Linzhou. After the hospital accepted the subordinate in violation of the law, it did not manage the operation and use of the vehicle, and the agent was still the actual controller and user of the ambulance. From January to November 2022, Dai used the special access convenience of ambulances to privately cross provinces more than 40 times and cross-city (county, district) more than 320 times.
Is the illegal use of an ambulance on behalf of a person just an isolated case? What is the status of the use and management of ambulances in the city? After further investigation, the procurator found that a total of 622 ambulances were registered in Anyang City, of which 495 were in normal use, and the number of ambulances in some medical and health institutions was uncountable and the management was out of control, especially the ambulances registered in the names of companies and private medical institutions had regulatory loopholes, and the problems of failure to implement the vehicle registration system, new cars not registered for filing, and vehicles that should be scrapped were not scrapped in time.
In response to the problems found in the investigation, the Anyang Municipal Procuratorate conducted research and discussion with the municipal health department and reported on the investigation visit. On December 12, 2022, the hospital issued inspection recommendations to the municipal health department, suggesting that it timely carry out the inventory and rectification of ambulances in medical and health institutions in the city, formulate a standardized ambulance and ambulance driver management work mechanism, and improve the ability and level of ambulance management.
Work together to tackle tough problems, accurately rectify and protect people's livelihood
After receiving the inspection recommendations, the municipal health department immediately took action, formulated a special rectification work plan for ambulances on December 13, and established a leading group for ambulance special rectification work to carry out special rectification of ambulances in the city. On December 24, the municipal health department conducted a comprehensive investigation of ambulances in the city's health system, classified statistics and registration according to the purpose of ambulances, and compared them with the ambulance registration information provided by the municipal public security organs, comprehensively figured out the bottom number, and investigated problems.
After investigation, the inspection team found a total of 145 problem ambulances, of which 6 were illegally attached, 46 were not scrapped in time, 49 were not registered with license plates, and 44 were not sprayed with standardized appearance.
In response to the problems identified, the municipal health department requires all units to formulate disposal opinions and rectification accounts for the problems by category, clarify the rectification period, and complete the rectification within the time limit.
In order to eliminate the problem of illegal use of ambulances from the source, the hospital also suggested that the health department further improve the approval system for ambulance purchases, establish a citywide ambulance management account, and publish ambulance information and supervision telephone numbers to the public to accept social supervision.
In August this year, the Anyang Municipal Procuratorate, when "looking back" at the registration of ambulance approval and filing information in some hospitals in the city, learned that the ambulances in Anyang City have completed the filing procedures, and rectification supervision is in place.
Represents the sound
Praise for the procuratorial wisdom of "handling one case and governing one case"
NPC deputy Ge Shuqin
The healthy development of medical and health undertakings is directly related to the life, health and safety of the people. The Anyang procuratorial organ can actively perform its duties in accordance with the law, put serving the overall situation and traceability governance in the first place, formulate and issue procuratorial suggestions to standardize ambulance management, promote relevant departments to plug management loopholes in a timely manner, and follow up the implementation of supervision, achieving the goal of "handling one case, governing one", and contributing procuratorial wisdom to safeguarding the people's life, health and safety.
(Source: Procuratorial Daily Rule of Law News Edition, author: Liu Lixin, Zheng Qian, Yang Lifang)